Drinking responsibly

Keeping below the 0.05 BAC limit

• Men—No more than 2 standard drinks in the first hour and 1 standard drink each hour after that.
• Women—No more than 1 standard drink each hour.

A standard drink is any drink containing 10 grams of alcohol. One standard drink always contains the same amount of alcohol regardless of container size or alcohol type (such as beer, wine, or spirit).

Caution: this is provided as a guideline only, and your own blood or breath alcohol concentration (BAC) will be determined by many different factors that could put you over the limit.

Remember—the only thing that will reduce your blood/breath alcohol concentration is time. It takes your liver about 1 hour to process the alcohol in 1 standard drink. After a heavy night's drinking, you could still be over 0.05 the next morning.

Coffee, cold showers, vomiting, or exercise will not reduce your blood/breath alcohol concentration

Getting home safely

If you’re going out drinking, make sure you plan how you’ll travel home safely, such as by using a taxi or public transport.

If you’re going out with other people, consider choosing someone in the group to be the ‘designated driver’ to drive the others home. The designated driver either doesn’t drink alcohol or closely watches how much alcohol they drink so they remain under the BAC. It’s a good idea to choose the designated driver before you go out, and drive to the venue together in one car.

Some licensed venues in south-east Queensland have a Skipper program. A ‘skipper’ is a person chosen by a group to get everyone home safely. Participating premises provide free soft drinks to the designated ‘skipper’.

To receive the free soft drinks, the skipper needs to register with the bar staff to receive a wristband. The skipper simply shows the wristband to get a free soft drink. Read more about the Skipper program and participating venues.